Joys of Spring

Last year I planted 1000 crocuses in the lawn in our front garden. The garden is not big, just average size, and we had the most wonderful show of yellow, white and purple flowers. Caused a sensation amongst our neighbours and people came from all over the village to see them. This year, so far, we have ten yellow crocuses out and hopefully we will have the same, if not more, flowers this year. I have always loved the little crocus, the herald of spring, and wondered how this experiment would work.
Unknown to me, my sister, who lives in Northern Ireland, did exactly the same thing last year and we sent each other a photo of what we thought was our own idea!!
Our grandaughter calls by often and enjoys counting how many flowers she can find - and today she counted the ten! So here's hoping for a beautiful colourful display again this year.

- yes, they do!
It is lovely to see the flowers doing their thing early. It just goes to show that nature does what comes naturally - and gives us an unexpected smile.

Ventured out in yesterday's sun to check my tiny plot. Five potted geraniums still flowering. Purple candytuft, blue dwarf iris and a pink hyacinth all making a very early appearance. Odd but lovely.

Don't the windows look filthy!

Well for those of you that have room - it is a good time to order roses.
The other stunner i have is William Morris - but again, it has gone off the boil in the last couple of years. Not feeding enough methinks. My only complaint about it is that the dead heads don't drop their petals. Unlike Anne Boleyn, a small sort of a rose which, as her name suggests, loses her head all too quickly. Especially in hot sunny weather.

I dead-headed a hydrangea yesterday and discovered lots of flower buds on it. The snowdrops now have little heads on them - they will be flowering any moment. All my fruit trees are budding, and I noticed that some of my perennial herbs have started shooting. I do hope we don't get any nasty frosts that kill these little shoots off.

I have just been down the garden to inspect the snowdrops which are coming on by leaps and bounds. I've never seen mini daffodils so near to opening - as they are - in January and it's not even half way through the month.

Jess & jingl - I love New Dawn but don't have it, Golden Showers are slowly taking over my piggeries and your Sympathy sounds fabulous and hardy! To match her, jingl, I have a lovely one called Compassion.

Iceberg is a trooper of a rose.
I wouldnt say unlucky with DA roses johanna - planted too many in a too small space. The best one I have is generous gardener. But none of them are blooming as much as they did on the first few years.

Both snowdrops and daffodils spotted today when out striding (shuffling?) along with my nordic poles.....

Some of my roses are still flowering like mad. The climbing Iceberg has about a hundred blooms. I guess at some stage I need to hack it back and fertilize.

Have also been a little bit , shall we say, unlucky with David Austin Roses.
Same for some of my friends.

Indeed, super! Our next-door neighbour from that time is still there and she says the back garden is "a mess" too. It's ironic really because it was the garden that really attracted the guy who bought the house, or so he said. It jolly well should have been as it was the nicest garden in the street.

I've still got some marigolds out!

Just heard on the TV news that there are 63 species of wild flowers in bloom in Wales which should not be in bloom at all yet.... The last two blooms on the roses in my garden have finally given up the ghost.

Just looked at a website to see how long rose bushes can live. Says, "You can easily expect to see a quality rose strain outlive you if properly cared for."

Not sure you would actually see it do so.

Just realised it must be well over forty years old now!!!

Jess, I've had New Dawn and Golden Showers in the past. Agree about New Dawn - lovely. The only one remaining of our original ones is Sympathy, a beautiful deep red. I am nurturing it carefully!

My father, who died a few years ago, bought us a lovely home in the 70's. The front garden was full of hybrid tea roses, lovingly cultivated by the owner and newly refreshed with 30 tons of best Cheshire topsoil. Yes - he did - the front garden was flagged over so my dad could put an extra car on there! He didn't blink an eye when passers-by made caustic comments.

A wild flower garden versus a car park? Adult grandson's eloquent response would be...'A NO-BRAINER'

I freecycled a lot of plants before we moved to Scotland. My Oxfordshire garden was packed with wild flowers that I'd lovingly encouraged but the people who were buying the house were going to turn the front garden into a car park, so I asked freecyclists to come and dig up what they wanted. Got a lot of responses. Things like aquilegia, cowslips, violets, even forgetmenots, were very popular, to name but a few!

And if you put them on Freecycle, you could stipulate that the person who wants them can have the privilege of digging them up. Roses have tenacious roots!

JessM How about putting your rose bushes on to Freecycle? I'm sure someone would be delighted to take them away and give them a good home.

www.freecycle.org/group/United%20Kingdom

Depends how early it comes! Too early for me. I think you may have gathered I'm NOT a morning person!!!

Not really Butternut. It was a new house 7 years ago. And what do you do - plant too many things to fill up the garden...
I have got 5 roses that are small climbers. 2 are happy, one is ok. 1 is unhappy - it was glorious the first few years (Teasing Georgia) but now it has too much competition from nearby plants I think. I have hacked it right back and need to fertilise like mad.
ttp://www.davidaustinroses.com/english/showrose.asp?showr=4258
The two against the dry and shady wall are supposedly Ok for this position (New Dawn - normally a trouper and Golden Showers - funny name huh!) but it is not working out.
But they are leggy, diseased and really not happy. Pity cos I love New Dawn.

www.davidaustinroses.com/english/showrose.asp?showr=656

Snowdrop are just delightful - lucky you crosstitchgill